How Will YOU Know When The Overthrow Of Our Democracy Is Complete ???

John Locke alluded to this in his treatises on government... that revolution becomes necessary when people can feel the tyranny.

"But if a long train of abuses, prevarications and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel, what they lie under, and whither they are going, 'tis not to be wondered, that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavour to put the rule into such hands, which may secure to them the ends for which government was at first enacted". (Second Treatise, Chapter 19).

I think people are so blinded by party allegiance that they cannot see that the line between the two parties is so thin as to be virtually non-existent. I confess to be one of these people. It hurts me to think that my party is as bought and sold as the Republican party, but it is looking to be so. It's painful to contemplate.

Uh huh.

When you can control the process and always get favorable results while still maintaining the illusion of choice?

Better to keep 'em docile. No need to let 'em know...

And they wanted a Democratic senate?

Like giving your kid a choice at mealtime: you can have either the broccoli or the kale. See? It's your choice!

a bullshit two party system that holds a gun to voters' heads and gets them to vote for one or the other by almost the simple virtue that they're "not the other guy" and then subsequently go off to behave not vastly different from each other, and where the only viable candidates have to raise millions or billions of dollars and subsequently indebt themselves to their wealthy donors.

Yeah, fucking spectacular elections those are.

No reason to blush.

and nuclear physics at grad school.

... (after earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy), then taught himself peanut farming at the public library, then made a fortune farming peanuts (before entering politics and becoming governor and president). He's not some dumb hick who won the jackpot at the national ballot box. He owes his accomplishments to a very high IQ.

was one of the most decent men to ever hold the office. That's why he took such a beating in popular public opinion.

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter, a Democrat, served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).[2]
wikipedia

I doubt Reagan could grow a chia pet.

And I think you have a dynamic mind but the answer to your question is...

When I am not able to see a post like this.

Yes, there are many disturbing things going on in this country but I am not gonna give it up yet because "the overthrow of democracy is (not) complete". And that requires me (and you) to keep it that way.

It would be a tad late by then, don't you think?

Gotta ask that question NOW.

And BTW - thanks for the compliment.

We survived Bush V. Gore

We survived NAFTA

We survived even the patriot act. But we are still here...discussing, debating, arguing even over the minutia of any of these policies. I think there is a lot wrong with the system as it is presently but we are still here, on the fringe, saying that it can be better. Democracy has not ended...it just has a terrible salesperson; or is it us?

a pretty fluid term, though.

Have we "survived" Bush v Gore? Seems to me that the impact of that election still echoes. NAFTA? The consequences of NAFTA still haunt us - and we're apparently headed toward doubling down on a bad deal with the passage of the TPP. The Patriot Act? Still around, still informing policy and law. Just because they didn't round us up and send us to gulags doesn't mean we "survived" it. Just that we've dodged it.

The bigger issue isn't draconian security laws, though - it is the erosion of the concept of a republic, replaced by an informal oligarchy. Why should giant corporations or paid politicians care about the mutterings of the fringe, beyond the mild annoyance of having to occasionally pretend they are paying attention to the buzzing in their ears?

You'll see it.

Caution! Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear!

but the patriot act pretty much sealed the deal.

So why are we bothering with the Democratic Party?

Personally, I'm not getting worked up.